Hosts Sylvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard give 16 young boxing hopefuls a shot at the big time in this Mark Burnett and Jeffrey Katzenberg reality drama. The Contender will delve into ...

User Thoughts:

Great fun watching marginal boxing

This is reality show from Mark Burnett and Sylvester Stallone. It aims to bring boxing back to prominence with a compelling TV competition show. Sylvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard give 16 young hopefuls a shot at a million dollar paycheck.

The reality part with the personal lives isn't that great. The games they play are of little interest. It is the boxing match that makes this show. It's not simply a sports boxing match like all the rest. They've Hollywooded it up with slow motion, and selective editing to amp up the adrenaline rush. The boxing matches are a great watch worthy of any big time movie. As for the caliber of the boxing, that's very much in dispute. But that may not be the point. We're watching the beauty of 2 men in competition, but not necessarily finding the next champ.

The Contender

Trivia:

There are 5> entries in the trivia list - like these:

On 14 February 2005, 23-year-old contestant Najai Turpin took his own life in his car in Philadelphia. No part of the show was edited to remove Najai.

The show cost NBC $2 million an episode to produce.

Sylvester Stallone's brother Frank Stallone participated as a boxing scout while looking for contenders in spring 2004 in the United States.

Both Sylvester Stallone's daughters appear in this show as spectators in a fight.